Line #117 Characters/TheFutureEve


1	Characters present in the 1886 novel ''Literature/TheFutureEve'' by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.
2
3	[[foldercontrol]]
4
5	[[folder:Edison]]
6	!!UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison / Professor X
7
8	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ewald_and_edison_3.jpg]]
9	[[caption-width-right:250: ''"I should have been born centuries ago. Alas, I have come into this world very late."'' ]]
10
11	Either the Wizard of Menlo Park himself, or a very transparent {{Expy}} of him. Edison is a genius - [[UnscrupulousHero if somewhat morally ambiguous]] - scientist with a mind centuries ahead of his time.
12
13	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Apparently, Edison had a secret underground garden where he hid his most secret inventions (a RidiculouslyHumanRobot, mechanical [[TalkingBird talking birds]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking technicolour sound film.)]]. He also dabbled in mysticism and learned the art of hypnosis, though he admits that he isn't nearly as good as Sowana. Notable in that the real UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison was still alive and working when the book was first released.
14	* BornInTheWrongCentury: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] He doesn't actually mind the nineteenth century that much. He just laments that previous generations didn't have access to his inventions or genius.
15	* TheGadfly: He does have a rather mischievous side.
16	* TheMatchmaker: He does all he can to get Ewald and Hadaly together, despite Ewald's complaints.
17	* MrExposition: Spends several chapters explaining scientific concepts to Ewald. Most of them relate to how his android works.
18	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Even in the versions where the name of "Professor X" isn't mentioned, it is blatantly obvious who he is supposed to be.
19	** He is said to be "about forty." The real Edison was thirty-nine at the time.
20	** He has several children, including a young daughter. The real Edison had three children at the time. His daughter, Marion Estelle Edison, was 13 at the time, which seems about right.
21	** He has pioneered film making, invented the phonograph and what sounds suspiciously like a lightbulb.
22	** He is the founder and director of a large electric company (actually called ''the Edison Electric Light Company'').
23	** He is compared to a wizard and lives in a large house in a park which also functions as a laboratory (Edison was known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," Menlo Park being the location of his research lab).
24	** Some of the illustrations of him look a bit like Edison, though more like an imaginary younger version of his older self than what he actually looked like in his forties.
25	** And, last but not least, he even uses "Mr. George ''Thomas''" as a pseudonym.
26	* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: He has a borderline misogynistic view of women, which Ewald calls him out on.
27	--> "Even though a woman has caused me great sorrow," Lord Ewald demurred gently. "I think that you speak of the sex with much severity."
28	** NobleBigot: He arguably counts as this, since he is clearly means well, at least. Also, to his credit he never insults women to their faces, and he ''does'' admit that all women are not as bad as Alicia or Evelyn.
29	--> '''Edison''': "Of course, I don't mean that all women are like that, but most of those who bring men to [[DrivenToSuicide a desperate end]] are, more or less."
30	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Yes, this trope even applies to ''Thomas Edison,'' of all people. Ewald actually accuses him of keeping most of his inventions for himself without releasing them to the public. (Considering that the ''real'' Edison has the world record for "Most patented inventions", he must have been ''way'' more productive than people think.) This is [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by him being wary of his inventions ending up in the wrong hands, and he still manages to get rich off the inventions he ''has'' released (as he did in RealLife.)
31	* ReluctantMadScientist: He's not entirely morally pure himself, [[EverybodyHasStandards but he still doesn't want his inventions to be misused,]] and is reluctant to hand over Hadaly to Ewald unless he understands that WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility.
32	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Is portrayed as this. He is willing to do some rather amoral things - such as committing identity theft and recording people without their knowledge or approval - but his goal is to keep people entertained and save thousands from depression and suicide, and he genuinely believes that technology will lead to world peace.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Ewald]]
36	!!Lord Ewald Celian
37
38	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ewald_and_edison.jpg]]
39	[[caption-width-right:250:''"I know I am a dreamer, but I have been well punished for my dreams."'']]
40
41	A rich aristocrat who has ended up in a very dysfunctional relationship. He goes to Edison to announce his decision to end his life, but is slowly convinced that there might be a future for hm, after all.
42
43	* ArbitrarySkepticism: Up until the end, he refuses to believe that Hadaly might be possessed by some supernatural spirit, saying instead that she is just a machine acting out a performance. This is after he has had her read his thoughts, calling up visions of his fiancée, and give an accurate description of a dream he hasn't told her about. Though in fairness, Edison doesn't really give him any good explanation for how she could be self-aware until the end. before that, he keeps flip-flopping on whether she is sentient or not, which doesn't help at all.
44	* DrivenToSuicide: When he visits Edison, he is planning to kill [[MurderSuicide both himself and his fiancée]] later the same evening. Edison manages to talk him out of it, but Ewald is still planning to kill himself in a few months if Edison's experiment doesn't work. It does, and Ewald gets his lust for life back.
45	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Subverted.]]
46	* InnocentlyInsensitive: At one point, he tells "Alicia" how she is much better than Edison's stupid android {{doppelganger}}. Turns out he has been talking to the android the entire time, and she doesn't take it well. Oops.
47	--> '''Ewald:''' "Was I mad? An Andraiad! How could I have dreamed of such a sacrilegious plaything, whose appearance alone would have made me laugh. An absurd, insensible doll. As if any mechanical thing made of hydraulic pressures and cunning cylinders could ever bear the semblance to one so beautiful as you, my Alicia. I will go and thank the professor presently without betraying any inquisitiveness as to his make-believe beauty. Disillusion must, indeed, have cast a shadow over my thoughts for me to have considered such a terrible project."
48	* LovingAShadow: He basically only likes Alicia because of her looks and voice, not because of her personality. Edison almost drops the trope by name, nearly seventy years before Creator/JRRTolkien named it.
49	--> '''Edison''': "It is then only a shadow that you are in love with, and it is for this shadow that you would die."
50	* MyGodYouAreSerious: There are times where he thinks that Edison is pulling his leg, which usually leads to some [[OutOfCharacterIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristic]] [[LaughingMad maniacal laughter]] coming out of his lips, but Edison is always dead serious about his plans.
51	* OnlySaneMan: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] He is ''trying'' to be this, calling out Edison for some of his actions and ensuring him that his plans will never work. Unfortunately, he is a bit WrongGenreSavvy, believing himself to be in a work of hard science fiction while he's actually in a ScienceFantasy story, meaning that he becomes a KnowNothingKnowItAll half the time.
52	* SecondLove: Hadaly becomes this for him [[spoiler: and he is also this for her. However, fate doesn't grant them a HappyEnding.]]
53	* SympatheticAdulterer: He falls in love with Hadaly despite already being engaged to Alicia. This is portrayed as being [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as Alicia is making Ewald's life miserable.
54	* TheWatson: Spends most of the story as a proxy for the reader, being amazed at Edison's inventions, listening to his exposition and asking him questions when he doesn't understand something.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Hadaly]]
58	!!Hadaly [[spoiler:/ Sowana]]
59
60	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hadaly_6.jpg]]
61	[[caption-width-right:250:''"My lord, are you sure that I am only playing a part? Are you quite sure that I, myself, am not really here?"'']]
62
63	A female robot created by Edison, which he offers to Ewald as a replacement for his own fiancée. She is supposedly only a very advanced automaton, but there are hints that there might be something more to her.
64
65	* BecomeARealBoy: Sowana thinks that when Hadaly is completed, she will literary transform into a real woman. Though Edison doubts this, and there is no indication that it actually happens. In the end, Hadaly seems to be fine with being "merely" a RidiculouslyHumanRobot as long as she is ''treated'' like a real person.
66	* BenevolentAI: A kind, empathetic being who cares a lot about the people closest to her. [[spoiler:Though she is technically not a true AI, but a literal human soul in a robotic body.]]
67	* [[DoAndroidsDream Do Andraiads Dream?]]: A big theme of the book. Lord Ewald insists that she is JustAMachine, and Edison's claim that she has a limited set of pre-programmed actions and responses seems to support this.
68	** On the other hand, Edison seems rather indecisive (and uncertain) on whether she is sentient or not. He argues that, even if Hadaly isn't "real," she still comes of as kind and empathetic, and that's better than being an undoubtedly real jerk like Alicia. He also feels that it is hard to call her "fake" when many women are just as guilty of hiding their true faces behind cosmetics, putting on false personas, ending up in relationships that are mere charades, and spending their lives just going through the motions. He makes a point of always treating her like a real person, giving her an aviary full of talking, mechanical birds so that she doesn't get lonely or bored (which he admits is a bit superstitious of him), and telling her to leave the room if he wants to have a private conversation.
69	** Hadaly herself argues to Ewald that she might very well be sentient, and does things that should be well beyond her programming, speaking words that hasn't actually been recorded by her phonographs, and having the power of second sight.
70	** [[spoiler: The truth is rather complicated. Hadaly was originally just a mindless robot, but then Sowana managed to posses her mechanical body, using it as a way to interact with the world while in her astral state. Doing this repeatedly led to a part of Sovana's soul being left in Hadaly, merging with her original programming to create a new person. But it is not clear ''when'' exactly this happened, or where to draw the line between her original programming, the influence of Sowana, or the new woman she eventually becomes.]]
71	* DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Edison, who turned her into a copy of Alicia specifically to make Ewald attracted to her. Note that Ewald was still technically engaged to Alicia at the time, though it was a very unfulfilling relationship.
72	* EvilKnockoff: [[InvertedTrope Inverted,]] she is Alicia's ''good'' knockoff.
73	** CriminalDoppelganger: Is technically this, but it doesn't have the usual consequences, as her only crime is the identity theft itself, [[spoiler:and both Alicia and she die in an accident before it can be discovered.]]
74	* {{Fembot}}: She is said to have a skin made out of small metal plates before she is turned into a RobotGirl. [[UnreliableIllustrator (Though the illustrator seems to have missed this, instead choosing to depict her as human-looking throughout the novel.)]]
75	* ManicPixieDreamGirl: PlayedWith. [[InvokedTrope Edison built her specifically as a cure for suicidal depression in men,]] and she is - by her own admission - an idealized person who is utterly devoted to Ewald, as she thinks that his love can make her real. She also shows Ewald that magic is real, and even describes herself as a literal LivingDream, a spirit from another world. [[SubvertedTrope However, she is really not that "manic" at all.]] She is a calm, intelligent and somewhat philosophical ProperLady who is perfectly fine with the idea of getting married and settling down. [[HiddenDepths And she ''does'' have a few interests outside of her love for Ewald, such as astronomy.]]
76	* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Ewald asks Edison how she is capable of having a conversation with them if everything she says is a phonograph recording. Edison claims that he has recorded ''sixty hours'' of dialogue which can be used in different contexts, but even ''that'' is stretching Ewald's suspension of disbelief a bit, and it doesn't explain how Hadaly can read his thoughts or why Edison is surprised by some of her comments. [[spoiler: It's implied that Sowana is using her powers to speak through Hadaly, just like she did with Edison's telephone.]]
77	* TuringTest: Edison claims that if she would pass such a test completely if she were to take it. He is proven right when she manages to pass off as Alicia Cleary for several minutes. Ewald only notices that "Alicia" [[OutOfCharacterAlert is not quite acting like herself,]] not that she isn't human. He only manages to expose her true identity because [[RedRightHand he recognises her perfume and her rings,]] [[ActuallyIAmHim and because Hadaly outright tells him who she is,]] apparently not expecting him to actually fall for her act.
78	** And even when she is a {{Fembot}}, Ewald has a hard time looking at her as anything but a woman in a suit of armour. It's only when Edison opens her up and shows her internal mechanisms that he is completely convinced.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Alicia]]
82	!!Alicia Cleary
83
84	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alicia.jpg]]
85	[[caption-width-right:250: ''"It shouldn't be done this way. I don't want the people who live in this house to think that I'm middle class."'' ]]
86
87	Lord Ewald's fiancée. An actress with very high standards when it comes to art. She seems to have a history of getting into relationships with men who have deep pockets.
88
89	* BrainlessBeauty: Gives off this impression. She apparently has no idea who Thomas Edison is, easily falls for his con, and thinks the lines she had to recite for Hadaly were too hard to remember. Though Ewald claims that she isn't really stupid, just a bit [[TheDitz ditzy]].
90	* DoingItForTheArt:[[invoked]] She ''claims'' that this is how she approaches her job. It is hard to take this at face value, given that she shows very little interest in art [[OnlyInItForTheMoney but quite a bit of interest in money.]]
91	* GoldDigger: She admits that she only tried to marry her last lover because of his money. This naturally makes Lord Ewald worried, considering that he is also rich.
92	* ItsAllAboutMe: Doesn't understand why people would care more about some stupid [{{sculptures}} statue]] like the Art/VenusDeMilo than her. She is much better-looking ''and'' she still has her arms.
93	* MoneyDearBoy: No! [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial She is NOT interested in money AT ALL!]] [[LogicalFallacies She just feels that being rich would be a good way of proving to others that must be talented.]]
94	* MoralGuardian: She complains about plays she considers too violent.
95	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: She might have been based on Mina Miller, Edison's second wife, who was about the same age as Alicia and married Edison the same year the story was written. There is not actually anything romantic going on between Alicia and Edison, but several of his neighbours believe them to be a couple.
96	* SlaveToPR: She wants everyone to get the right impression of her, and is willing to get a statue of herself made purely because she thinks it's fashionable.
97	* StrawCritic: Not a professional critic, but she sure loves complaining. She is treated like a quite unlikable person who is seemingly incapable of finding joy in life and makes others' lives miserable.
98	* TookALevelInKindness: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] Ewald ''thinks'' that this has happened at one point, but he has actually been talking to her robotic doppelgänger.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Sowana]]
102	!!Sowana / Annie Anderson [[spoiler:/ Hadaly]]
103
104	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sowana.jpg]]
105	[[caption-width-right:250: ''"I am another being now, not myself. Here I forget my sorrows, and I do not suffer."'']]
106
107	Edison's female assistant. She is a talented {{sculpt\|ors}}ress helping Edison to construct Hadaly, a project she shows a lot of interest in. She also has various nifty PsychicPowers.
108
109	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: While in her astral form, she becomes endowed with various PsychicPowers, as well as more intelligent and knowledgeable about the Universe, but she also becomes a spirit which can barely interact with the physical world. [[spoiler:She gets around this by possessing Hadaly, giving her a body that lets her use her powers to her full potential.]]
110	* ChekhovsGunman: She appears and is mentioned several times throughout the novel, but it's not made clear why she is so important until the end [[spoiler:where it is revealed that Hadaly is her SoulJar.]]
111	* HappyPlace: She uses her astral state as this, though it's implied that it's only half-successful, as she still seems rather depressed.
112	* IJustWantToBeYou: Seems to have a bit of this towards Alicia, [[spoiler:given that she puts her spirit in a robotic body that looks just like her, while also trying to woo her fiancé.]]
113	* JumpedAtTheCall: She was ''very'' excited to start working on Hadaly, [[spoiler:as she wanted to use the robot as a vessel for her spirit.]]
114	* [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal: Both of her bodies die only a week apart, likely forcing her to move on to the afterlife.]]
115	* ProHumanTranshuman: She may have gotten powers and knowledge most people could - literary - only dream of, but this has just made her more willing to help others and educate them about her new discoveries. [[spoiler:Her Andraiad self also has no problem with the idea of marrying a human.]]
116	* {{Technopath}}: Sowana can communicate with Edison telepathically by using his telephone. [[spoiler: As it turns out, she has also been possesing Hadaly for much of the story.]]
117	* [[ThatManIsDead That Woman Is Dead]]: To an certain extent. While she is in her astral state she puts on a different persona and tells people to only refer to her by her dream name, Sowana.
118	* WalkingSpoiler: Let's just say that there is a reason why there are so many spoiler tags in this section.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Evelyn]]
122	!!Evelyn Habal
123
124	A dancer at the Music Hall. She seduced Edward - who was already married - and had an affair with him, only to leave him once his money ran out. By the time the story starts she has been dead for several years.
125
126	* BettyAndVeronica: She was the Veronica to Annie's Betty, with Edward as their Archie. It didn't end well for any of them.
127	* EvilCounterpart: To Hadaly. They are both trying to become the ideal-woman by making themselves look more beautiful, and both of them have an affair with a man who is already in a relationship with another woman. The difference between them is that while Hadaly was a genuinely NiceGirl who actually cared about her lover, Evelyn... wasn't.
128	* EvilRedhead: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] Her red hair was just a wig.
129	* GoldDigger: Possibly, given that she left Edward as soon as she had spent all his money.
130	* PosthumousCharacter: As mentioned in her description. She only appears as a piece of footage recorded by Edison.
131	* PredecessorVillain: "Villain" might be a bit of a stretch, but she was responsible for ruining Edward's life in much the same way as Alicia is ruining Lord Ewald's now.
132	* MakeUpIsEvil: She relied heavily on make-up and other cosmetics to make herself more attractive, to the point of looking like an entirely different person. Edison considers this to be an evil act, as she was basically hiding her true self from Edward.
133	* NoodleIncident: We know that she is dead, but Edison never explains ''how'' it happened, or how he got his hands on her stuff, for that matter.
134	* TragicKeepsake: Edison is storing a piece of footage of her - as well as her wig and some of her other cosmetics - in his secret underground chamber, to remember the woman who ruined Edward's life.
135	* TheVamp: She saw no problems with the idea of seducing a married man and having an affair with him.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Edward]]
139	!!Edward Anderson
140
141	Sowana/Annie's ex-husband and a friend of Edison. His marriage was ruined by his affair with Evelyn, and he ended up taking his life when his money ran out and Evelyn left him. Edison was deeply moved by his suicide, and has done all he can to prevent others from following in Edward's footsteps.
142
143	* BettyAndVeronica: His relationship with Annie (Betty) and Evelyn (Veronica) can basically be summed up like this. It's an unusually dark example of this trope with a real DownerEnding.
144	* DrivenToSuicide: Killed himself after his life went down the drain.
145	* HappilyMarried: To Annie, though their marriage went sour after he met Evelyn.
146	* HistoryRepeats: His story is very similar to Lord Ewald's. [[ThemeNaming Even their first names sounds alike.]]
147	* ImAManICantHelpIt / NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Might be why Edison only blames Evelyn for their affair.
148	* TheLostLenore: A gender inverted example for Annie, and a platonic one for Edison.
149	* MyGreatestFailure: Edison seems to consider his death to be this, and has set out to help people in similar situations.
150	* PosthumousCharacter: Obviously.
151	* SympatheticAdulterer: The story doesn't attempt to justify the affair itself, but Edward is still treated like an innocent victim.
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:Edison's Children]]
155	!!Edison's Children
156
157	The children of Professor Edison. They play a rather small role in the story, and eventually disappear from it altogether.
158
159	* TheCameo: Their appearances are essentially this.
160	* CheerfulChild: Edison's daughter is characterized like this. (Though she was technically a young teenager at the time.)
161	* TheDividual: They are not really given much individual characterization.
162	* FreeRangeChildren: Edison doesn't really seem to care about what they get up to.
163	* MissingMom: Their mother never appears, and there is no indication of what happened to her. This might be a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as Thomas Edison's first wife, Mary Stilwell, had died two years earlier in RealLife.
164	* MouthOfSauron: He may not be the BigBad, but Edison does tell his daughter to pass on some pieces of information to his servants.
165	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Presumably based on Edison's (first three) real children, Marion "Dot" Estelle Edison, Thomas Alva "Dash" Edison, Jr and William Leslie Edison.
166	* TheVoice: They never appear in person. Edison only talks to them over the telephone.
167	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: They just kind of... leave the story and never come back. You almost start to wonder if the author forgot that they existed.
168	* WhenYouComingHomeDad: They can be interpreted as looking at their father this way, given that they spend one of their appearances trying to catch his attention, and he spends nearly all of his page time at work.
169	[[/folder]]
170
171	[[folder:The Press]]
172	!!The Press
173
174	Edison's recent reclusiveness has caught the interest of several reporters, who formulate all kinds of theories about him. Eventually, they get bored of waiting for something to happen at Menlo Park and move on to the latest scandal instead.
175
176	* AmateurSleuth: While they do ''try'' to be this, they are not very successful, and they never even get close to figuring out what Edison is up to.
177	* EntertaininglyWrong: They notice that Edison never goes outside anymore and is constantly visited by doctors, so they come to the conclusion that he is terminally ill. Actually, he is perfectly healthy. He is simply really devoted to his work, and has hired the doctors to assist him with it.
178	* GoingForTheBigScoop: This is basically their goal.
179	* IntrepidReporter: They want a good story, and have nothing against uncovering one by themselves.
180	* {{Irony}}: The reporters are convinced that Alicia Cleary cant possibly have anything to do with whatever is going on at Menlo Park, and that Thomas Edison has just brought her there as a RedHerring to fool them. In reality, she is quite important, given that Edison is building an Andraiad in her likeness.
181	* MistakenForRomance: [[AvertedTrope Averted.]] While some of Edison's neighbors wonder if Edison and Alicia are in a relationship, the reporters think that she is completely insignificant.
182	* NoodleIncident: We never find out what the new "high-life scandal which had begun to agitate the country" was.
183	* {{Paparazzi}}: They seem more concerned about the private lives of local celebrities than actual news. The more reclusive Edison becomes, the more obsessed they are with finding out as much about him as possible, going as far as trying to trace the packages delivered to his house. Then, once an actual scandal pops up somewhere else, they start chasing after that and stop caring about Edison.
184	* TakeThat: Needless to say, they are not the most flattering portrayal of news media in fiction.
185	* UnreliableExpositor: They are this InUniverse, mostly because they don't know much about the subjects of their writings and make a lot of assumptions.
186	[[/folder]]

Context Characters / TheFutureEve